Sports

Lee girls grab 7th

• The Lee County girls golf team finishes seventh at the Class AAAA state tournament,while the boys finish 11th.

Derek Barichello

AUGUSTA — The score was better for Lee County sisters Ebony and Ivory Day, but the finish was not.

The senior duo took home seventh place out 16 teams to end their prep careers in the girls GHSA AAAA State Golf Championship on Monday at Forest Hills Golf Club in Evans.

Ivory’s 84 and Ebony’s 89 combined for 173, just behind Woodward Academy which won the tournament at 166.

Last year, the Days shot a 185 — Ivory an 87 and Ebony a 98 — and finished three spots better at fourth, despite finishing 12 strokes higher.

“I think the girls are a little disappointed,” Lee County coach Cristi Griffin said. “They played a lot better (but finished lower), that’s the way the tournament played. Only seven strokes were the difference between first and seventh; that’s a putt here or a putt there.”

Meanwhile, the Lee County boys showed consistency.

The Trojans competed in the boys GHSA AAAA State Golf Championship at Bartram Trail Golf Club in Augusta and for the second consecutive season finished 11th out of the 16-team field as Richmond Academy won the tournament.

“I thought we’d hit single digits,” Trussell said. “But I’m still proud of them.”

Lee County shot a team score of 332 – 40 strokes behind the winners from Richmond and 14 strokes behind Region 1-AAAA rival Thomas County Central.

Leading the way for the Trojans, Nate Gahman carded a 75, while Clint Eudy finished with an 80, Bryan Glenn an 87 and Alex Herring a 90 to round out the scoring.

Heath Tharp shot a 91 and Colby Buke shot a 98 but did not count in the Trojans’ final score.

“We’ve fought it out with TCC about eight times this year,” Trussell said. “Every time we play them, we’ve been closer to beating them (including Monday). That makes us feel good.”

Not to mention Gahman turned in a lower score than his personal rival, TCC’s Josh Comb – who won Region 1-AAAA the last two years over Gahman. Comb finished with a 79, four strokes lower than Gahman.

“They’ve fought it out for the last three years,” Trussell said. “Josh is a senior; so that was their last go round. It was nice to see Nate come out with a lower score.”

Both girls and boys teams had their adventures adjusting to the state golf courses as they played them for the first time in Sunday’s practice round.

At Forest Hill, it was the shorter course. The Day sisters excel with their driver and like to play for distance off the tee. Forced to adjust, they struggled at times but still managed their best career scores at state.

For the boys, it was an all-together more difficult setting than playing at their home of Grand Island Golf Club.

“Grand Island is a wide open course,” Trussell said. “The course we played on (Monday) was tighter. There were woods on both sides and lots of water, lots of up and downhill golf, lot of blind shots. It was tough for us.”

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